China Zoo Watch conducted a study from January 2011 to the end of March, in which it sampledmore than 40 zoos nationwide. It found that animal performances, which it claims often involve actsof cruelty, are common nationwide.

About 50 percent of urban zoos, 91 percent of animal parks and 89 percent of aquariums offersuch performances, according to the survey.

In Beijing, the wildlife park in Daxing district offers shows of dogs jumping through fire loops, andanother wildlife park near the Badaling section of the Great Wall features wolves and tigers jumpingacross fiery circles and bears playing with flaming sticks, the survey found.

Both parks declined to comment on the issue when reached by China Daily on Sunday.

Liu Nonglin, a senior engineer of the Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens, said a zoo shouldbe a demonstration site for animal protection.

Liu said people could also be hurt by many zoo animals or catch diseases. However, he said, atotal ban on animal performances would take time and require public cooperation and a change inattitudes.

However, as the circular didn’t specify penalties, animal performances and petting zoos featuringwild animals remain a common practice, said Sun Xiaochun, a ministry official.

“It (the circular) is more of a warning than a regulation,” she said, adding that the ministry mightrevise the rules to impose tougher punishments.

But not everyone agrees with the campaign against animal performances.

Zhou Haipeng, 22, a student at Beijing Foreign Studies University, said he found animalperformances, especially by dolphins, very loving and informative, rather than cruel and mercilessas depicted by the activists.

He said he first went to the Beijing Aquarium in 2008, when he arrived in the capital for study, andwas very impressed.

“The dolphin show was cute,” said the student from South China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomousregion. “That was the first time I saw a dolphin in the flesh.”

Zhou said it would be sad if animal performances are banned, especially the dolphin shows.

“People, especially those from inland cities, could see and touch animals and become furtheraware of how to protect them, which is a good thing,” he said. “Jumping a fire loop is toodangerous, but dolphins swimming in the water is not.”

The Beijing Aquarium told China Daily on Sunday that their dolphin training is animal friendly, notbased on punishments.

“It is not against the animals’ will as those NGOs said, and there is definitely no animal abuse,” saida spokeswoman of the aquarium, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“We offer animal performances to let the public know how cute they are and how to better protectour (animal) friends.”

There are 24 dolphins at the Beijing Aquarium, all of which appear in the shows, 15 minutes eachand two or three a day, according to their physical condition.

The Beijing Aquarium stopped allowing people to interact with the dolphins, which included allowingchildren to kiss the animals, in 2010.

“There’re no more performances we can call off. All we have left are some simple performances,like jumping and bouncing balls,” the spokeswoman said.